5.10.2009

'Paranormal Activity' Offers Geniune Scares

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Rarely does the hype match the film, but this is one terrifying little horror flick.

Paranormal Activity, out exclusively in Santa Cruz today, is the story of couple Katie (Katie Featherston, who looks like a more buxom Jenna Fischer) and Micah (Micah Sloat), who decide to investigate a possible demonic presence in their San Diego home by setting up a camera to tape any occurances, particularly as they sleep.

It's also the story of the tiny independent movie made on a shoestring budget a la Blair Witch Project, complete with shaky camera tricks and one protagonist that never knows when to put the damn camera down (that would be Micah, in this case).

Paramount Pictures picked up the distribution rights to first-time director Oren Peli's movie, who also wrote and edited it. The marketing campaign has been mainly internet-based with midnight screenings being held in college towns (it's expected to hit more theaters mid-October).

Based on the turnout for San Francisco's midnight showing at the Castro Theater today, the campaign is working. Lines to get into the sneak peek wrapped around the block, packing the house. It also managed to terrify the crowd, who leapt to applause following the end credits.

A recent Los Angeles Times article detailing a real-life scary story, from director Steve Spielberg no less, is surely also helping. As the incident goes, back in 2008, Spielberg supposedly watched a screener of the film when his DreamWorks studio was considering releasing it. Not long after he watched it, the door to his empty bedroom inexplicably locked from the inside, forcing him to summon a locksmith. As soon as he got it out of there, he drove the DVD straight back to the studio in a garbage bag because he wanted it out of his house.

Speilberg's experience mirrors the kind of paranormal activity Katie and Micah face throughout the movie, which starts to get increasingly more intense as they try to find ways to deal with it. Most of their methods are ill-advised by a hired psychic, but that doesn't stop Micah from doing everything he can to beckon the thing that has haunted Katie since childhood.

It's an unnerving, edge-of-your-seat experience from the start, as the activity goes from basic bumps and noises in the night to full blown attacks toward Katie. And thanks to that hand-held camera gimmick that manages to work despite its now-tiring concept, it also feels totally realistic and plausible, making it absolutely horrifying. Hands down, one of the best horror films of the year; sure to conjure up geniune scares.